Guest Author - Barbara Melville

Giles Sparrow’s The Planets is published by Quercus. My copy is the UK hardcover (2007 reprint, ISBN: 9781905204779). There is a US version too – I’m not sure what the exact differences are but I’d imagine it is adapted to include American-English spellings.

The book offers a collection of facts and images of the Solar System, covering:

• The Sun
• The major planets
• The moons
• Dwarf planets
• Asteroids

Each section looks at these objects and how far we’ve come in exploring them, accompanied by several high-resolution images. For example, the section on Venus looks into how probes have been used to determine the atmosphere and terrain. Information on orbit, axial tilt, diameter, surface gravity and distance from the Sun are also included for each planet.

Stargazers beware – this is not a guide for viewing Solar System objects, but rather a resource on their characteristics. It assumes some knowledge of astronomy, however, there is a glossary (p220-221) that will help beginners fill in any gaps in their knowledge.

Is it actually aimed at beginners? I think it is aimed at anyone with an interest in the Solar System, but it depends on what you’re looking for. You can actually read it and/or you can gape at the pictures. The language is not jargon-ridden but it’s not always straightforward, so children would probably need some guidance.

The information in this book is not new to me, but I’ve picked it up several times to admire the images. I especially liked the images of the Sun and planets on pages 12 and 13, designed to give readers a sense of the scales involved. This is important when considering Solar System objects, and yet many books fail to mention it.

With scale in mind, I was thrown by the use of kilometers throughout. Even studying objects within the Solar System deals with very large distances, so kilometers seem inappropriate. The author probably wanted to use a unit that beginners can relate to, but I’d have liked to have seen conversions to more commonly used units too.

I have a number of astronomy books that I’d be happy to carry around in an old bag and generally handle with less than a little care. The Planets isn’t such a book – it’s the sort of book that demands respect, sitting gracefully on my bookshelf as I agonize over the array of fingerprints I’ve managed to furnish it with.

Fingerprints aside, the print and paper appear to be of high quality. The only real drawback (for me, anyway) is that the text is white on a black background throughout. This isn’t unusual for astronomy books but I find it quite tiring to read, particularly the longer passages, despite them being so well-written. However, overall, Sparrow’s book is a treasure, whether you’re interested in learning about the planets, viewing some stunning images of the Solar System, or both.